The Middle Distance Lane

You're not a sprinter and you're not a pure distance swimmer. Your 50's & 1500's aren't as great as your 200's, 400's, & 500's. Your 100's aren't shabby. Let the D Divas take those 800's, 1000's, 1500's & 1650's. You're caught in the middle. You've got OK speed, but you can do those longer sets that make pure sprinters ill. You're well conditioned and tend to do well with back to back events. You're in great company, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte are middle distance swimmers who have excellent 100's but not so great 50's. Man you can train.
This is the middle distance lane. Don't get lapped.

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

So how many other middle distancers besides me wish there were 400 events for each stroke and a 600 or 800 IM? Yes, even a 400 fly... it would probably be my best chance at a #1 ranking, though I have no idea how I'd complete it in LCM.

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

Originally Posted by That Guy

So how many other middle distancers besides me wish there were 400 events for each stroke and a 600 or 800 IM? Yes, even a 400 fly... it would probably be my best chance at a #1 ranking, though I have no idea how I'd complete it in LCM.

The day that there is a 800 IM would be happy day for me. I think that I could survive it though. I just wish that they would have the 800 medley relay because I would always have an automatic spot in it.

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

Originally Posted by ande

You're not a sprinter and you're not a pure distance swimmer. Your 50's & 1500's aren't as great as your 200's, 400's, & 500's. Your 100's aren't shabby. Let the D Divas take those 800's, 1000's, 1500's & 1650's. You're caught in the middle. You've got OK speed, but you can do those longer sets that make pure sprinters ill. You're well conditioned and tend to do well with back to back events. Man you can train.

Geez, looking at that description again, it's freaky-accurate. Here's the complete list of events that I've ever gotten Top-10 in: 100 fly, 200 back, 200 fly, 400 free, 400 IM. There have been years where I looked at the #10 times in some of the distance events and said, "hmmm, I could have beaten that time" but of course I didn't and the distance guys are welcome to do it instead.

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

this was my lane in college. although i was in a group known as the "upper mid-distance" lane. we swam in the lane adjacent to the distance group, and did a lot of the same (or VERY VERY similar) sets as the distance group, but without the emphasis on 1000/1650 training, and more an emphasis on the 200/500. however, we ended up playing host to most of the fastest sprinters on our team too (with a few minor exceptions). when the distance group was shooting for 10k a practice, we were somewhere in the neighborhood of 8.5-9.5k, while the actual "mid-distance group" would be somewhere 1-1.5k behind us.

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

So how many other middle distancers besides me wish there were 400 events for each stroke and a 600 or 800 IM?

That would be great. One of the reasons I am picking up the 400 IM, despite my weak breaststroke, is because I realize that I mostly like to train non-free and the 400 IM was the only option above 200 for strokes.

Originally Posted by That Guy

There have been years where I looked at the #10 times in some of the distance events and said, "hmmm, I could have beaten that time" but of course I didn't and the distance guys are welcome to do it instead.

Part of that -- and this is my opinion only -- is that I think TT in the distance events are a little weaker than in the sprints. Not the top spots, those guys are pretty amazing; I'm talking about spots 5-10. Again, just my opinion (and it is often true of the 200 fly and 400 IM too; many masters avoid those, no idea why.)

Originally Posted by Calvin S

this was my lane in college. although i was in a group known as the "upper mid-distance" lane. we swam in the lane adjacent to the distance group, and did a lot of the same (or VERY VERY similar) sets as the distance group,

Unfortunately we didn't have a mid-D group in college: we had the sprinters, the distance guys, and one group for each stroke. Early on I swam almost exclusively with the distance guys, until I noted with alarm that the coach started regularly putting me in distance events in meets. Then I switched to mostly train with the stroke groups with an occasional visit to the D-guys if I wanted to pound out some yardage.

I think one main difference between a distance and mid-distance set is the amount of rest. Distance guys don't mind doing sets with very little rest, while I don't mind doing things repeats of 200-500s in practice, I like to have a decent recovery time between reps.

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

Originally Posted by Chris Stevenson

Part of that -- and this is my opinion only -- is that I think TT in the distance events are a little weaker than in the sprints.

I don't think there is any question at all about that. Way more people swim the shorter events, and thus the TT times are stronger. I noticed there are 81 entries in the men's 40-44 100 IM in Atlanta. There are eight entered in the same age group for the 1650 free. Now, part of that is that distance day is on Thursday, but I doubt there'd be a whole lot more takers if Sunday were distance day!

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

I had heard of these non-standard records being kept by the Australian Masters, but I didn't know whether those events were regularly contested. For instance, in USMS we keep records for the 800 free relay, but in my experience it is rarely contested outside Oregon.

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

Originally Posted by That Guy

I had heard of these non-standard records being kept by the Australian Masters, but I didn't know whether those events were regularly contested ...

Hard to say. On the one hand, casually looking at a few of the 2009 meets, it's clear that not every event is contested in every meet. On the other, many of the records in the longer stroke events were set in 2009, so the events were contested somewhere.

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

Wow - I'm new here - been lurking for a bit and I used to train with one of the 800 IM record holders. I thought a 400 IM was madness...and still do. OK back to lurk until I do some more serious swimming

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

800 IM record. I could totally do the 30-34 record in AUS. We need those records in this country so I can finally get a National Record.

Australian Rules Swimming

Want an unofficial national record? Pick an Aussie event, swim it, and post the time.

SCM & LCM: 400-800-1500 back & breast; 400-800 fly; 800 IM

And I suppose us yanks should add,

SCY: 500-1000-1650 back & breast; 500-1000 fly; 800 IM

I don't think I'll join you in an 800 IM but I could totally see dedicating a workout this summer to a 1500 LCM backstroke. I'm not quick enough to challenge their record, but it would still be a fun swim.

Originally Posted by Karl_S

1500 M breaststroke!? I'm starting to question the sanity of these Aussies! The 400 back might be a worthy challenge.

More Aussie Madness

I was curious to see if they have a rankings page, and indeed they do, here. Although apparently they don't keep national records in these events, in addition to the FINA events and the Aussie events above, I found times in the rankings for,

Re: The Middle Distance Lane

Originally Posted by ande

Since we're at the beginning of a new season

Oh the season has started already? I'm still on my break until small child goes to pre-school, but think I'm headed for the middle distance lane once I get back in the water. I checked out the fly lane earlier and they swim scary amounts of fly, so am sure I'll be happier here.

So what is the difference between 500 SCY and 400 SCM? .....please don't say 4 lengths or 60 yards - is it a truly different race?